Felix Jackamarra (Giakimera)
Felix Jackamarra was born at a place of the Moore River called Karaganap in 1850 his parents was know as Utonga (Ngoogongga) a Kuljuk Yabbaroo Noongar and Yuraba full blood aboriginals that lived in the area traditionally known now as Yued country.Felix was a Tondarup skin group and he was part of the Kuljuk swan totem he wondered the moore river and area of his families with his parents and siblings named Wandimera,Wular ,Youbul and a girl Boruk making there way along the Moore River and arriving at New Norcie around 1855 this was when Utonga and Yuraba had handed their son over to the new norcia mission.There he was baptized and given the name Felix he had married Susie winten (muyur).Felix had also played in the new norcia cricket team. Susanna was born in 1860 and was the daughter of Daniel Franney (white man) and Tulbuk (aboriginal) ,Tulbuk was an aboriginal woman of the swan river area Perth. Susie was a Ballaruk skin group this making her marriage to Felix tribal.
Susie also has had a brother by the name of Henry Indich a wudjuk.
Felix and susanna had the following children:
Susie also has had a brother by the name of Henry Indich a wudjuk.
Felix and susanna had the following children:
- Mary Carmen b.1874
- Mary b.1876
- Raphael b.1878 d.24.6.1896 (New Norcia)
- Maurice b.1880
- Manuel b.1882
- Joseph b.3.4.1885 (New Norcia) d.21.3.1886 (New Norcia)
- Joseph b.1886
- Matilda b.29.5.1889 (New Norcia) d.27.1890 (New Norcia)
- Matilda b.19.3.1897 (New Norcia) d.8.2.1898 (New Norcia).,
- Henry b.31.12.1890 (New Norcia) d.3.3.1892 (New Norcia)
- Felix b.1892
- Patrick b.,
- Matilda
- Dominic
- Felix b.1900
- Mary Carmen b.1903 (New Norcia) d.21.5.1904 (New Norcia)
The Invincibles
“The Invincibles” of New Norcia In the 1880s New Norcia fielded a cricket team of Indigenous players who were so successful, they became known as “The Invincibles.” Bishop Salvado, the Abbot of New Norcia, thought that the ritual and competition of the game of cricket, together with the high degree of skill it required. The game New Norcia Cricket team. Would also provide an opportunity for the people of New Norcia to mix with settlers on an equal footing. Cricket was introduced to New Norcia by Henry Bruce Lefroy, a pastoralist in the Victoria Plains region. He became the New Norcia coach and instigated a series of matches which were played between New Norcia and Perth and Fremantle sides. The New Norcia team walked to Perth in 1879 to play their first two matches, losing to Perth by four wickets (Perth lost six wickets in the second innings chasing eight runs for victory), but beating Fremantle, then the champion team in the colony. What was remarkable about this first team was the brilliant fielding, which was the decisive difference against Fremantle and nearly produced a stunning victory against Perth. The New Norcians used these first matches to hone up their other cricketing skills. They practiced incessantly on the New Norcia cricket pitch and this had remarkable results. Felix Jackamarra and John Maher became fine bowlers, with Maher earning the nickname ‘the destroying angel.’ John Walley, Patrick Yapo and Felix Jackamarra showed good batting form, and John Blurton’s stylish batting caught the eye of all who saw him. In the years following the New Norcians successively thrashed a Victoria Plains team by 147 runs and an innings and 103 runs and three days after the latter victory in 1882 they beat a Guildford XV by 10 wickets, margins that were unprecedented in Western Australia’s cricket history. They played Perth, Fremantle, Northam, York and some five or six other clubs, and of 18 games they lost only one (indeed it is said that for five years in the 1880s they did not lose a single game). Cricket lovers gathered in their hundreds to watch the Indigenous players, and wherever the team went they were feted and admired. Those Indigenous cricketers played the game in the true British sense of the word cricket, with sportsmanship and fair play. They were treated as fellow sportsmen throughout their playing history. When they won they were heartily congratulated by their opponents, and when they lost, the opposite was true. The New Norcia cricket team was a force to be reckoned with in Western Australian cricket for over a quarter of a century, before they were disbanded in 1906.